Racial Unrest Has Been Simmering In Sleepy St. Petersburg For Years

A Federal Report In March Warned That Police Officers' ''lack Of Respect'' Created Growing Racial Tension.

October 27, 1996|By Twila Decker of The Sentinel Staff

ST. PETERSBURG — Racial unrest festered in this sleepy town of shuffleboard courts, palm trees and pink hotels long before angry black rioters took to the streets Thursday night.

A police chief was fired for being insensitive to blacks four years ago. In 1978, a riot broke out on the same street corner as the one three days ago.

As late as March, a report by an advisory committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights warned that the ''lack of respect in police treatment of citizens'' was creating growing racial tension.

The breaking point was the death of 18-year-old TyRon Lewis. He was shot Thursday by a white police officer after being stopped for speeding.

In Thursday night's rioting, one police officer was shot in the shoulder; cars were torched, as were white- and Asian-owned businesses; police and photographers were pelted with rocks and bottles; and 20 people were arrested.

The underlying cause of such riots is discrimination, and it ''is probably a little worse in Florida than in most states because it has a history of legal segregation,'' said Joe Feagin, a University of Florida sociology professor and author of the book Ghetto Riots.

Feagin said Florida cities, often melting pots of Northerners and Southerners, are not immune to racial rage. In the past 16 years, there have been five riots in the state, the most serious in 1980 in Miami after five white policemen were acquitted in the death of a black motorcyclist.

Ronald Akers, director of the Center for Studies in Criminology and Law at the University of Florida, said the city was considered an unlikely setting for a disturbance.

''St. Petersburg is perceived as the place where old people live; a tranquil, relatively peaceful place with some good beaches,'' he said. ''It has never been perceived as an urban hot spot.''

But as the city's population has grown, the average age has dropped to 38 from 48. Retirees now account for barely a quarter of the residents, and they are increasingly home-grown.

The 1990 census shows that 20 percent of St. Petersburg's residents are black and nearly all of them live in south St. Petersburg. It also reveals 37 percent of those residents live below the poverty line.

In the city of 240,000 people, the dividing line for most of the blacks and whites is drawn at Central Avenue. In the era of Jim Crow, blacks were prohibited from crossing Central after dark.

Today, most of the city's black residents still live on the south side - an area pocked with dilapidated housing, struggling mom-and-pop businesses and crime. The north side consists of thriving businesses and towering high-rises.

Black residents say the glaring disparity between the worlds of blacks and whites is even more apparent when it comes time for the city Police Department to dispense justice.

''Community policing on the white side is, anytime you need help we're there,'' said Tony Mitchell, who has lived on the south side his entire life. ''On the black side, community policing is shooting us in the face and taking us down like slaves.''

But Police Chief Darrel Stephens said although there might be some racism among his 500 officers, 17 percent of them black, he does not think most of his officers single out black residents for harassment.

''Clearly there's racism in our society, and we have those kinds of problems in our department,'' he said. ''But our officers' behavior, by and large, is professional.''

In recent years, the first sign of racial trouble came in 1978 when riots broke out after a white police officer shot a black man during an arrest attempt. Unrest continued in throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, exacerbated by increasingly strained relations between the black community and the Police Department.

In 1992, the police chief, Ernest Curtsinger, was fired after complaints he was insensitive to blacks. He labeled the promotion of a black sergeant as ''affirmative action'' and canceled diversity classes.

Curtsinger then ran unsuccessfully for mayor, antagonizing the black community even further with his presence on the campaign trail.

To try to calm the city after Curtsinger's campaign, city officials called for the advisory committee study in 1993. That study warned that there were problems to come.

''It was indeed evident that police actions can be the spark that sets off a confrontation and that despite some efforts to address these problems they are still paramount to concerns,'' the report said. ''The critical importance of police actions was expressed over and over again.''

The city is now asking for another study of the racial problems and suggestions of ways to make race relations better. City and community leaders spent the weekend talking about ways to come together. Ministers were planning to preach about peace today from pulpits on both sides of Central Avenue.

Mayor David Fischer acknowledged the problems in several news conferences over the last couple of days, saying, ''There is no excuse for violence, but you've got to say, 'Here is a group for whom it is hard getting a job.'

''They probably reach a point where they stop and say, 'What's in it for me?' We've got to address that, and the whole country has got to address it. It's not just St. Petersburg.''